Brazil: Activists Protest Globo Network's Role in 'Parliamentary Coup' Against Dilma

Brazilian social movements, including the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), Brazil’s Popular Front and the Fearless People Front protested at the Globo Network's headquarters and offices across the country Tuesday as they marked two years since the start of the impeachment process, which supporters have branded a parliamentary coup, against democratically elected president Dilma Rousseff.

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Demonstrators accuse the network, which is influential across all formats of Brazil's media, of actively participating in the coup against Dilma, and contributing to the campaign that led to the imprisonment of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.      

For months leading up to the impeachment proceedings, the Globo network published corruption accusations against Rousseff and Lula’s Workers’ Party shaping public opinion and pressuring the judicial power.

Rousseff was impeached by a congressional vote on August 31, 2016. Her “crime,” was manipulating public finances to conceal a budget deficit, using the funds for a program dedicated to meet agricultural needs of small-scale farmers. On April 5 she announced her candidacy for the Brazilian Senate.

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Referring to Lula’s imprisonment, Joao Pedro Stedile, of the Landless Workers’ Movement highlighted in an interview last week that the media corporation Globo “is the political coordinator of right-wing forces," and is "responsible for the coup against the people.”

During his last political rally, Lula condemned the network blaming it for the hatred and political polarization prevalent in Brazil. He mentioned an incident where two vehicles in Lula’s caravan were shot at, saying: “The propagator of hate in Brazil is called TV Globo and a great part of the media that was complicit with the hate disseminated in this country.”  

The demonstrations coincided with the 22nd commemoration of the El Dorado de Los Carajas massacre in Brazil, in which state forces murdered 21 Campesinos. The MST also organized roadblocks and occupied large estates as part of their protests.   

Meanwhile, the Committees for the Annulment of Impeachment, a process approved by the chamber of representatives on April 17, 2016, organized a protest outside of the Supreme Federal Tribunal.